WASHINGTON – President Bush signaled yesterday he is not yet ready to reveal how he would fix Social Security’s looming insolvency, saying he must first persuade people there is a problem.

“I got a lot more time to tell people that there is a problem,” Mr. Bush said in a speech to newspaper editors.

The president also exhorted Congress to “get off the dime” and pass a comprehensive energy plan.

Mr. Bush spoke to the American Society of Newspaper Editors after a Republican lawmaker called him to disclose precisely how he would fix the retirement program’s inevitable insolvency problem.

Mr. Bush said that some members of Congress would rather not tackle Social Security because it is a politically sensitive subject. He said the political consequences would be worse if lawmakers failed to address the problem.

Mr. Bush has talked for weeks about his proposal to create a system of private investment accounts for Social Security but has acknowledged that those accounts would not solve the program’s financial problems. He has not said how he would address the insolvency issue but has invited members of Congress to propose solutions.

The president met with House GOP members to talk about Social Security, part of an ongoing series of discussions. Rep. Jim Kolbe, a Republican of Arizona, said he told Mr. Bush “the time has come where we’ve got to start to put some specifics out there about how we’re going to fix the solvency of it.”

But Mr. Kolbe said Mr. Bush might not be prepared to do that yet. “He does understand that at some point we have to start talking about the specifics,” Mr. Kolbe said. “I think that he may just not be ready to be there yet.”

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Mr. Kolbe’s conversation with Mr. Bush about when more specifics would be publicly discussed was “more of a general discussion” about the phases of educating the public about the problem.

He said Bush talked with lawmakers about the importance of finding a permanent fix to Social Security and how to get it done this year. “There is some discussion about when do you do that and the president said ‘Well, we’re still in this phase now of educating the American people about the problems facing Social Security’ and at some point we’ll be focusing more on solutions and the way to get this done through Congress.”

Separately, Mr. Bush said yesterday that embattled House Majority Leader DeLay has been an effective leader and he looks forward to continue working with him despite the charges of ethical violations the congressman is fighting.

Mr. DeLay has come under close scrutiny in recent weeks following news stories questioning the financing behind a few of his overseas trips. The congressman and his aides have consistently denied he knowingly violated the law, and the House Ethics Committee has been unable to operate because members are deadlocked in a dispute over rules for launching an investigation.

Mr. Bush told the American Society of Newspaper Editors that he expects that Mr. DeLay will cooperate with an investigation. “As I read his comments today, he wants the ethics committee to review his case, and he’s willing to step up and talk to the ethics committee about it,” Mr. Bush said.